• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 7, 2006

If you're on the fringes of promoting VoIP, here's an interesting insight into the early adopters from a recent study by IDC.

The number of U.S. households with income-generating or corporate home offices, says the study, are more than twice as likely to implement VoIP in the next 12 months compared with households in general. Currently, 39.1% of corporate home offices and 23.7% of home-based businesses are interested in or using VoIP. In contrast, only 10.8% of households without home offices are VoIP aware.

Chris Hazelton, senior analyst, SMB research at IDC, says "Home offices will adopt VoIP communications at a faster rate than U.S. households overall. Although cost savings are important, features such as convergence with mobile phones will be increasingly important to home offices in the long run."

Other ther key findings of the study include:

• Although VoIP has moved beyond the very earliest adoption stage, many home office households are reluctant to use VoIP as their only telephone service, and rather add it as a second method of communication.
• Savings on long distance continue to be the key driver of initial interest in VoIP by home offices.

To obtain the complete IDC study, visit here.